392 
GUATEMALA. 
certainly the volcanic eruptions have diminished in force 
and frequency. Fuego, the most important, lays claim to 
twenty-one of the fifty recorded eruptions of the Central 
American volcanoes ; but during the present century it 
has cast out merely sand, and no lava streams. 
I have never had the experience of a very severe earth¬ 
quake, although I have had the pictures swing on the 
walls and the plastering crack and fall; therefore I must 
borrow the description of an earthquake, that the list just 
given may seem more real. The following account-' is 
considered very truthful: — 
“ The night of the 16th of April, 1854, will ever be 
one of sad and bitter memory for the people of Salvador. 
On that unfortunate night our happy and beautiful capital 
was made a heap of ruins. Movements of the earth were 
felt on Holy Thursday, preceded by sounds like the rolling 
of heavy artillery over pavements and like distant thunder. 
The people were a little alarmed in consequence of this 
phenomenon, but it did not prevent them from meeting 
in the churches to celebrate the solemnities of the day. 
On Saturday all was quiet, and confidence was restored. 
The people of the neighborhood assembled as usual to 
celebrate the Passover. The night of Saturday was 
tranquil, as was also the whole of Sunday. The heat, 
it is true, was considerable, but the atmosphere was calm 
and serene. For the first three hours of the evening 
nothing unusual occurred; but at half-past nine a severe 
shock of an earthquake, occurring without the preliminary 
noises, alarmed the whole city. . Many families left their 
houses and made encampments in the public squares, 
while others prepared to pass the night in their respective 
courtyards. 
